Long Lonely Night - Lee Andrews & The Hearts (Chess Records) 1957, 78 rpm! A Direct Recording!
I do believe this was released on Mainline records first and then distributed by Chess to the rest of the country.
They started out as the Dreamers. After changing their name to The Hearts they put out a few records on the Rainbow label (and Riviera)--(Maybe You'll Be There).
After this they were on Gotham records (In My Lonely Room, Just Suppose). Then they went on to Mainline records which actually released a version of "Try The Impossible" way before it hit in '58, which promptly flopped.
Finally, after three years with no hits, the luck of Lee Andrews and the Hearts was about to change.
In June 1957, Main Line issued "Long Lonely Nights"/"The Clock" (both re-recordings of tunes originally done on Gotham).
"Long Lonely Nights" was an instant local hit.
In fact, it was doing so well that Jocko realized he couldn't handle national distribution. He approached both Atlantic and Chess about taking over the masters.
Atlantic was initially interested, but ended up simply releasing a version of "Long Lonely Nights" by hit-maker Clyde McPhatter.
Chess was more amenable, and in July it was released on the Chess label everywhere but in Philadelphia (Jocko kept Philly sales for Main Line).
There was another Chess act that recorded the song: the Ravens (who were recording for Chess' Argo subsidiary). So as not to compete with itself, Chess leased those masters out to Baton, which released the Ravens' "Long Lonely Nights" as by "the Kings."
Information here is paraphrased and quoted from Uncle Marvy's R&B notebooks. Thank you Uncle Marvy!
I always found it odd that there is another song similar in title and artist to this one which is just a different song altogether: Lonely Nights by The Hearts (on Baton Records). Thankfully it's by a girl group so it's not too hard to remember which is which.
Lee Andrews & the Hearts was a doo-wop quintet from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, formed in 1953.
They recorded on the Gotham, Rainbow, Mainline, Chess, United Artists, Grand and Gowen labels.
Managed by Kae Williams, in 1957 and 1958 they had their three biggest hits, "Teardrops", "Long Lonely Nights" and "Try the Impossible".
The group consisted of Lee Andrews (lead), Roy Calhoun (first tenor), Tammey Currey (second tenor), Ted Weems (baritone) and Wendell Calhoun (bass).[1]
Questlove, drummer and producer for the Grammy award winning hip-hop group The Roots, is Lee Andrews' son, and cites growing up with doo-wop as a major influence in his music.[2]
External links
- Marv Goldberg's article on Lee Andrews & The Hearts
- Yukon Jack's article on Lee Andrews & The Hearts
Source:Wikipedia
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